April 2017 Newsletter

2017-18 Accountability Test: Iowa AssessmentsWe will be administering the Iowa Assessments again in the spring of 2018 as our state accountability test. The senate has passed a bill to start the search for Iowa's accountability test over again with cost and online/offline versions taken into consideration. The new state assessment would be implemented spring of 2019. Click here for a Des Moines Register article on the recent activity at the statehouse.

ACT Test Day: Wednesday, April 19The ACT District Testing program increases college access and opportunities for all of our students. With the ACT District Testing, our district can establish student performance baselines using scores on the ACT, make informed curriculum decisions and create data-driven intervention strategies, and strengthen advising programs using ACT data—all research-based and aligned to ACT College and Career Readiness Standards.

With ACT District Testing, our students:

feel less stress due to testing during the school day in a familiar environment

check off a major part of the college application process

build confidence in their knowledge and learn about where they still need to improve

receive personalized information to explore future college and career decisions based on their strengths and interests

use scores for financial aid and scholarship applications

provide information to identify college admissions and scholarship opportunities

Iowa Assessment AdministrationBetween April 3 and April 14, DMPS students in grades 3 through 11 will be taking the Iowa Assessment. The high school test date is Wednesday, April 5. Measuring academic achievement with the Iowa Assessment provides information to help our students succeed. The Iowa Assessment makes this possible by providing detailed information about achievement in content areas including reading, mathematics, and science.

District-Wide Survey ToolWe currently have a request for proposals out with the intent to acquire an enterprise-level survey management tool. This will enable us to centrally manage all surveys in the district, including the creation of survey items, scheduling of administration, collection, and data storage. Benefits of an enterprise-level survey management tool include: centralized survey storage, decreased redundancy in surveys, increased survey quality, and more.

If you have plans to purchase or renew a survey tool account (such as SurveyMonkey or Qualtrics), please wait until we acquire a district-wide tool in May/June. Contact Mary Grinstead with any questions.

All Subgroups Now Available in One View on MAP DashboardThe NWEA MAP dashboard has been enhanced. At the request of the Tableau Advisory Committee, multiple subgroups can be viewed on one screen. Check out the updated view here.

Tableau Server UpgradeWe are committed to providing users with a fast and reliable connection to data reports while minimizing the amount of time needed to compile that data. As of March 22nd, the Tableau Server is running on new, more robust hardware. Increased dependence on Tableau reports necessitated a major upgrade as users began describing more and more problems with increasing load times. WE HEARD YOUR CRIES!

Working in collaboration with the Technology Department, the new server has been successfully deployed and the time needed for loading key reports has been greatly improved. As an example, the Attendance Rate Dashboard, a report that processes over 9 million rows of data, used to load in approximately 2 minutes and now loads in less than 15 seconds. This new server contains a total of 56 processors and 256 GB of memory, so it should serve the district well for years to come.

If you encounter Tableau reports that consistently take over 1 minute to load, please report this information to the Customer Service Desk so that it can be addressed.

We trust you will find your Tableau Report experience much less frustrating and appreciate your patience as we worked through these issues.

Continuous Improvement UpdatesLearn about Lean tools, how the CI department can help, and process improvement projects from March in the newest newsletter. Projects by department, type and status data is located here. For additional resources and information please visit @DMPS - Continuous Improvement (Lean) or contact Emma Knapp.

Dear Data Diva, I am trying to get all my summer plans in order and I know that Online Registration (OLR) Processor training sign up has been open for a while. It is important to me to get to see the changes that have been made to the online registration process so I can efficiently help my families register. As of today, I have still not received my email asking to choose my training dates. I was the processor last year and assumed I would be the processor this year. I am worried I will not get the date I want. Can you tell me when I will be receiving the email? --Prepping for Processing

Dear Prepping for Processing,It is good to see you are interested in keeping up with the changes in OLR. If you have not received an email asking you to register for the OLR training, check with your administrator. Every year the buildings have to complete a form to designate their OLR processors for the next year. Once the form has been submitted, an email is sent to the processors asking them to sign up for a training session. I would recommend you speak to your administrator as soon as possible to verify you are the processor for next year and that the designation form has been completed. Just so you know, some of the sessions are already at capacity. If you need the link to the designation form, contact kellie.hanlon@dmschools.org or margaret.neve@dmschools.org.As Always,Data Diva